English

Vision

Nurturing independent (critical) thinkers, effective communicators

Unpacking the Vision

After six years of primary education at CHIJ Primary (Toa Payoh), the school believes that the IJ girl will possess the following qualities and skills:

The IJ Girl is an effective reader, writer and speaker of the language.
The IJ Girl speaks English confidently and eloquently, expressing her thoughts and views with clarity and precision.
The IJ Girl is a critical thinker who is able to comprehend with ease and accuracy what she reads.

Key Programmes

National Curriculum – Stellar 1.0/2.0

The STELLAR (Strategies for English Language Learning and Reading) Programme was developed by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in 2006 and revised in 2019 to cater to the diverse range of English language learners in Singapore. As of 2022, STELLAR 2.0 has been implemented in our English Language curriculum from Primary One to Primary Three. In 2025, all our students will be exposed to this programme.

The vision of STELLAR is to develop in children a love for reading and a strong foundation in the English Language and it aims to strengthen children’s learning of the English Language by using engaging and age-appropriate strategies and instructional materials.

Under the STELLAR programme, special emphasis is placed on developing the children’s oral communication skills and this is congruent with the vision of the English Language Department at CHIJ Primary.

Reading@IJ

This is implemented from P1 to P6 since research findings have shown that analytical thinking is boosted by reading. Apart from improving one’s general knowledge, reading increases one’s Vocabulary and improves one’s Spelling. It also enhances critical thinking. Increased Vocabulary is especially crucial for writers and in order to write well, our students will need to read widely.

We strongly believe that our students should be given the opportunity to read frequently and most importantly, they should be exposed to a buffet of reading materials and genres. To develop their love for reading and to instil in them a thirst for knowledge, our students will be introduced to various reading materials.

Primary 1 and Primary 2 students are exposed to specially-selected age-appropriate magazines which are interesting and informative.
Students from Primary 3 to Primary 6 are exposed to the ‘Little Red Dot’ which is the ‘The Straits Times’ educational supplement for primary school students. It focuses on English Language learning, and contains articles on news and current events intertwined with elements of social-emotional learning, as well as Values Education and National Education, which are all key learning areas in the classroom experience of 8- to 12-year-olds. It contains at least one thought-provoking learning activity to develop students’ critical-thinking skills and caters to all levels and learning styles.

Students are also provided with opportunities to read. Silent Sustained Reading, which is monitored by the English Language Department and the Mother Tongue Department, takes place daily from the time students arrive in school up to 7.30 a.m. On Mondays and Tuesdays, students read English Language books and on Wednesdays and Thursdays, they read Mother Tongue Language books.

Oral Interaction Time

Three times a week at the start of English Language lessons, ten minutes is allocated for students to speak up and share about different topics. Students present or discuss different topics, which can be provided by the teacher or based on students’ interests.

English Language Week

English Language Week aims to build the love for the language in all our students. This annual event allows students the opportunity to apply their language skills in a variety of exciting activities that develop their written and spoken communication skills.

Enriched Reading, Response & Inquiry (ERRI)

ERRI aims to stretch the academic abilities of our High Achieving Learners while emphasising the importance of using one’s talents and gifts to serve the greater good.

Through this customised reader response curriculum, these students will be developed into more self-directed, innovative, collaborative, civic-conscious and service-oriented individuals. Reader response focuses on how readers respond to a text and how the interaction of the reader with the text affects text interpretation. Opportunities will be provided for each student to develop her creative and critical thinking skills, project-management skills and problem-solving skills.

Our students experiencing the Joy of Learning during the English Week